The political infighting within the BCCI has become more intense over the last two decades, coinciding with India’s rise within the game.
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Dalmiya changed things singlehandedly. Dalmiya sensed an opportunity. Through the television entrepreneur Mark Mascarenhas, I met with Dalmiya a couple of times in London during the 1999 World Cup. The process wasn’t easy and Dalmiya never gave up. Broadcasters queued up outside his Kolkata office to bid for the rights of Indian cricket long before the country’s economy reaped the benefits of privatisation.
I asked Jaggu if it would be worth doing.
The 75-year-old talismanic cricket administrator passed away at 8.45 pm on Sunday night following a massive cardiac arrest at the B M Birla Heart Research Centre where he was admitted on Thursday evening.
Dalmiya, who was also a former head of the global Cricket Council, is credited with overseeing India’s emergence as the game’s powerhouse during previous stints at the helm of the BCCI.
Had he continued as ICC chief… In 1999, Dalmiya and his wife came to Vizag to lay the foundation stone of the north block and the inauguration of the pavilion block.
In the backdrop of an Australian withdrawal sighting security reasons, Dalmiya forced his way to sending a joint India-Pakistan team to Sri Lanka on the eve of the 1996 World Cup, thus saving the island nation from being decreed a land infested by terror. With his organisational skill and business knack, he realised Bangladesh had all the potential of becoming a good market for cricket.
He galvanised the third world nations in the cricket sphere and brought them together. Shukla, though, is unlikely to be a consensus candidate, especially with former president Pawar also not averse to the idea of heading the BCCI again.
Recalling one of his many meetings with Jagmohan Dalmiya, former Australian captain Ian Chappell today paid a rich tribute to the late BCCI President, saying he was a “rarity among administrators and that history should judje him kindly”. Concerned that Indian cricket was losing credibility, Dalmiya, as interim boss in 2013 and since getting himself re-elected in March 2015 wanted to implement measures for a clean-up.
The mortal remains of Dalmiya were consigned to the flames at the Keoratala crematorium. He was still the committed administrator.
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“He was an immensely farsighted man. The generation of huge revenue for cricket through the sale of telecast rights was his brainchild. You can be rest assured if Pawar fights, CAB and NCC (kind of Dalmiya’s family club) won’t vote for him”, the senior East Zone official said. Was touched by his efforts to make my penultimate Test at Eden Gardens very special.
